Crepis vesicaria |
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beak hawk's-beard, weedy hawksbeard |
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Habit | Annuals, biennials, or perennials, 3–120 cm (taproots slender to thick, caudices swollen). |
Stems | 1, erect to arcuate or decumbent (green or purple proximally), usually much branched, glabrate to hispid and/or tomentose, sometimes sparsely setose (setae black). |
Leaves | basal and cauline; petiolate (bases clasping); blades oblanceolate to ovate, often runcinate, 10–35 × 2–8 cm, margins pinnately lobed to toothed (terminal lobes relatively large), apices obtuse or acute, faces usually hirsute (hairs sometimes only on veins) or glabrous (cauline sessile, bases auriculate, clasping, margins ± toothed). |
Involucres | cylindro-campanulate (becoming turbinate or urceolate in fruit), 5–14 × 5–6 mm. |
Florets | 50–70; corollas yellow (reddish abaxially), 6–15 mm. |
Phyllaries | 7–16, (reflexed at maturity) lanceolate, 10–12 mm, (margins green to yellowish), apices obtuse or acute (ciliate), abaxial faces tomentose and often stipitate-glandular, adaxial with fine, appressed hairs. |
Calyculi | of 5–12, ovate to linear-lanceolate, glabrous bractlets 3–4 mm (reflexed in fruit, scarious). |
Heads | 10–20, in lax, corymbiform arrays. |
Cypselae | (monomorphic or dimorphic) pale brown or yellowish, fusiform, 4–9 mm, outer wider with apices attenuate (not beaked), inner gradually tapered, beaked (beaks 2–5 mm, ± equal to bodies), ribs 10 (narrow); pappi white (fine, soft), 3–6 mm. |
2n | = 8, 16. |
Crepis vesicaria |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Oct. |
Habitat | Sandy clearings, hillsides |
Elevation | 0–300 m (0–1000 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; CT; NC; NY; OR; PA; BC; Europe [Introduced in North America; introduced, South America]
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Discussion | Native to the Mediterranean region of western Europe, Crepis vesicaria is recognized by its annual or biennial habit, pinnately lobed leaves, reflexed calyculi, tomentose and glandular phyllaries, and slender, long-beaked inner cypselae. It is polymorphic; subspecies are recognized in Europe. E. B. Babcock (1947) identified the North American plants as subsp. taraxaciflora (Thuiller) Thellung, which some Europeans (T. G. Tutin et al. 1964–1980, vol. 4) have listed as a synonym of subsp. haenseleri (Boissier ex de Candolle) P. D. Sell. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 238. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Crepis |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 805. (1753) |
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